Prochaine séance du séminaire bilinguisme de l’axe DENDY (laboratoire DDL) (05/06/2026)

Le prochain séminaire bilinguisme de l’axe DENDY (laboratoire DDL) recevra Erin QUIRK,Assistant Professor, Département des arts, langues et littérature, Université de Sherbrooke le 5 juin à 10H

La conférence en présentiel et en ligne portera sur « Comment l’entrée des enfants à l’école influence-t-elle les croyances des parents concernant le multilinguisme chez les enfants et les pratiques langagières des familles ? »

Titre: « How does children’s entry into school shape parents’ beliefs about childhood multilingualism and families’ language
practices? »

Abstract – English Version

In Quebec, where English and French are both widely used in society, 1out of 6 children under the age of 4 are growing up with more than
one language (Schott et al., 2022). Parents raising multilingual children of this age have expressed positive attitudes about the impact of
multilingualism on their children (Kircher et al., 2022) but also concerns about its impact on their children’s future experiences at school
(Quirk et al., 2024; Quirk et al., in press). Little is known about how such beliefs evolve after children enter school, and furthermore, how
these beliefs influence parents’ language use with children over this period. In this talk, I will present results from a study (currently
ongoing, N=40) which builds on this earlier work by examining beliefs related to children’s multilingual development and language
practices among parents raising multilingual children spanning the age of school-entry (3- to 8-year-olds) in Quebec. In addition to the
effect of school-entry on parental beliefs, I will also discuss the impact of the status of the languages children are acquiring on parental
beliefs and language practices, specifically whether children are acquiring two societal languages (English and French in this context) or
whether they are also acquiring a heritage language.

Références
Kircher, R., Quirk, E., Brouillard, M., Ahooja, A., Ballinger, S., Polka, L., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2022). Quebec-based parents’ attitudes towards
childhood multilingualism: Evaluative dimensions and potential predictors. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 41(5), 527-552.
Quirk, E., Langevin, A., Ahooja, A., Blumer, S., Ballinger, S., Brouillard, M., Polka, L., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Kircher, R. (In press). Calls for social
justice through plurilingualism: Education-related family language policies among Quebec-based parents raising multilingual infants and toddlers.
In M. Antony-Newman (Ed.) Plurilingualism for Social Justice in (Language) Education. Routledge.
Quirk, E., Brouillard, M., Ahooja, A., Ballinger, S., Polka, L., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Kircher, R. (2024). A corpus-assisted discourse study of parental
concerns regarding multilingual child-rearing. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-19.
Schott, E., Kremin, L. V ., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2022). The youngest bilingual Canadians: Insights from the 2016 census regarding children aged 0–9
years. Canadian Public Policy, 48(2), 254-266.